The Square of
Miracles

Tower of Pisa is more accurately referred to simply as the bell tower, or
campanile.

The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex
in Pisa, Italy, called Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli, which means Field of
Miracles.

The first building constructed at Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa, was the cathedral,
or Duomo di Pisa, which rests on a white marble pavement and is an impressive example of
Romanesque architecture.

The next building added was the baptistery just west of the dome.Then work on
the campanile began. Before the work on the campanile was completed the cemetery, Campo Santo,
was built.

Piazza dei Miracoli of Pisa is the most splendiferous assemblage of Romanesque
architecture in Italy. Faced in gray-and-white striped marble and bristling with columns and
arches, the cathedral, with its curiously Islamic dome and matching domed baptistery, rises from
an emerald green lawn.

Flanking one side of the piazza, the camposanto, or cemetery, is a gracefully
elongated cloister enclosing a burial ground with earth reputedly brought back during the
Crusades from Golgotha, the hill where Jesus was crucified, so that noble Pisans could rest in
holy ground.

The Leaning Tower of
Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the piazza's
crowning glory.

Although only a third as high as the
Washington Monument, it was a miracle of medieval engineering,
probably the tallest bell towers in Europe.